The Women’s Refugee Commission Detention Pregnancy Tracker: A Critical Tool for Documenting the Treatment of Pregnant Women in Immigration Detention

🚨 Have you seen a pregnant woman in ICE custody? Submit a report today.

The U.S. immigration detention system is the largest in U.S. history and will only continue to grow as ICE receives a windfall of $45 billion for immigrant detention alone. Within this ever-increasing population, pregnant, postpartum, and nursing women represent one of the most vulnerable groups, requiring specialized medical care that detention facilities are often ill-equipped to provide. ICE’s own policies state that pregnant women should not normally be detained. But reports of many cases to the contrary, as well as increased secrecy about pregnant women's experiences inside detention centers, led the Women’s Refugee Commission to launch a new Detention Pregnancy Tracker.

I'll admit it: until recently, I didn’t fully understand how often ICE detains pregnant women and how negligently ICE treats them at a time when these new mothers should be celebrating new life. If this is new to you, as well, please don’t turn away from this crisis. Read on below, then help share this post and the tracker with anyone you know who might come into contact with a detained pregnant woman.

As I said, the consequences of detention on pregnant women can be devastating. Take the case of Iris Dayana Monterroso-Lemus, who miscarried in ICE custody several months into her pregnancy despite calls for medical assistance. After being arrested in Tennessee, ICE and its for-profit subcontractors transferred Iris from facility to facility, failed to provide prenatal care, dismissed her pleas for help with unusual pain, and later, when she was finally transferred to a civilian hospital, they shackled her ankles while lying in bed, grieving the loss of her baby. Iris’s U.S. citizen partner and the baby's father, Gary Bivens, was kept in the dark and would not see Iris again until she had been deported back to Guatemala, where she was still suffering from the experience. Gary is now relocating to Guatemala to be with Iris. “I've never experienced something so horrific in my life. I lost all respect for every bit and piece of this country,” he told reporters. Just eight days before Iris miscarried, Gary found out they were supposed to have a boy.

Iris is not the only person ICE is deporting with new physical and emotional scars. Diana Flórez from the Women's Refugee Commission (WRC) and Adam Isaacson from the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) went to Honduras to learn more about women who had recently been deported. Health care providers found that pregnant women, new mothers, babies, and children who were deported by ICE often showed signs of malnutrition and inadequate medical care in U.S. detention. Particularly concerning were breastfeeding mothers who, in the days leading up to flights, were given little food and water. One provider said, “They arrive with hardly any milk—or milk that looks like water—and this affects the babies’ weight.” WRC and WOLA also found that women with children were being deported without the opportunity to reunite with their children—which is not supposed to happen—leading to what Zain Lakhani calls a “new family separation crisis.”

Iris's story is increasingly common—yet hidden—in this era of mass detention accompanied by a corresponding decline in government transparency. Senator Jon Ossoff's office released an outrage-inducing report of detained pregnant women sleeping on floors in overcrowded intake cells, multiple examples of pregnant women miscarrying in detention, and detention staff telling women with pregnancy complications to simply drink more water. The Senate Judiciary Committee found 14 pregnant women in ICE detention in Louisiana—and that only includes women who happened to be there at the time that Congressional staff visited. The Committee's report goes on to list several examples of medical neglect of pregnant women who were bleeding. NBC News reported on the case of a pregnant U.S. citizen woman who faced complications after being arrested and shoved by ICE. Currently, these reports are the only way the public is able to find out what's going on inside detention facilities.

None of this is normal. An ICE policy in place since 2021 states that ICE should not “detain, arrest, or take into custody individuals known to be pregnant, postpartum, or nursing unless release is prohibited by law or exceptional circumstances exist.” The policy further states that, “In the very limited circumstances in which detention is necessary and appropriate, ICE must monitor individuals known to be pregnant, postpartum, or nursing detained in ICE custody for general health and well-being, including regular custody and medical reevaluation, to ensure appropriate pre- and/or postnatal and other medical and mental health care.” Available evidence suggests that ICE is not following its own policy to limit the detention of pregnant women and provide those pregnant women who are detained with adequate medical care.

Our understanding of the scope of this problem is hampered considerably by the fact that ICE has stopped publishing its required semiannual report titled “Pregnant, Postpartum, and Lactating Individuals in Immigration Detention;” ICE is actively preventing Congressional staff from entering detention facilities as required by law; and ICE is preventing legal service providers from speaking with detained women. ICE is turning detention centers into black boxes that hide the very real risk and damage to women at a time when the agency should be more transparent and accountable.

In response to this informational and health care crisis, the Women's Refugee Commission created a Detention Pregnancy Tracker and invites health care professionals, attorneys, clergy, detention center staff, advocates, and family members to report cases so that the public can better understand the scope and impact of the treatment of detained pregnant, postpartum, and lactating women. We need to work together to shine a light on what is happening in these facilities and fight for women to receive better treatment. This tracker may be the only way that these stories ever see the light of day.

Regardless of one's partisan affiliation or views on immigration policy, we should be able to come together to ensure that pregnant women and their unborn children receive basic medical care while in government custody. The documented pattern of miscarriages, denied care, and nutritional deprivation represents a clear failure to meet even minimal standards of human decency that is shared by people across the political spectrum and from all backgrounds and faiths. We have an opportunity here to rise above artificial divisions to ensure that pregnant women are treated with the care and dignity they deserve—no matter where they're from.

If you have seen a pregnant, postpartum, or lactating woman in immigration custody, please let the Women's Refugee Commission know by submitting a report through the Detention Pregnancy Tracker.

The form is simple and straightforward: you only need to share what you know. Plus, you're in charge of your reporting. You can submit multiple reports, view all of your reports, and update previous reports as you learn more information. After you submit a report, someone from the Women's Refugee Commission will follow up with you shortly.

This is not a normal tracker that asks you to enter information into an unsecured Google Form and send it off into the unknown, leaving you to wonder what will happen to your contribution. Instead, the WRC's tracker is an interactive, secure, custom-built platform designed by Relevant Research to meet the unique needs of this urgent project.

Please send all media requests and other inquiries to Zain Lakhani, Director of Migrant Rights and Justice at the Women's Refugee Commission.

🚨 Take Action Now: Share Widely

If you believe in ensuring the safety and health of pregnant women, do your part by sharing this resource online through social media, on professional listservs, and with people you know who can help spread the message.

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